English Abstract This Master Degree thesis takes up the topic of fashion and deals with the debate concerning fashion as a mean of expressing womens individual self. The main aim of this thesis is to analyse the meanings which women in todays society attach to fashion and their individual lived experience with this phenomenon. This text is based on theoretical assumptions of Gilles Lipovetsky as his conceptual understanding of fashion emphasises free agency of human beings and therefore stays against the opinions of traditional sociology of fashion. For a long time, the area of fashion had been neglected, however, in this text the subject is discussed as a socially relevant and historically developing phenomenon and as an unique institution, which is characteristic for a modern society. Theoretical outcome of this thesis is the suggestion that fashion might be understood as one of the means used by women to express their individual self. Woman is seen as an individual human being, who lives through her own unique experience, on the other hand, her behaviour, her own experience is limited by external factors and conditions.

Child and youth care (CYC) practitioners (CYCPs) who have lived in residential placement as children or youth represent an understudied and thus largely unknown cohort. This lack of knowledge has resulted in assumptions, generalizations, and unfounded claims impacting discourses, and potentially practices, within CYC. Based on the development of an original research method—audio drama inquiry—this sonic dissertation presents the first documented examination of the perspectives, experiences, and insights of 17 Canadian CYCPs “from care” (CYCPfC). Informed by research-based theatre, CYC theory, and care ethics, two audio drama series were created asking “what does residential placement experience do to CYCPs, and how do CYCPfC do CYC?” The resulting performances reveal frictions and desires related to working for, within, and at times against the same systems that one grew up in. CYCPfC articulate benefits resulting from their “lived experience,” such as identification, empathy, inimitable systemic knowledge, and motivations to initiate change within such systems. However, the audio dramas also reveal perils related to their personal histories, the institutions in which they work(ed), and the “the field” more broadly. Through greater understanding of CYCPfC, who provide insights, cautions, and learnings from their unique perspectives, this study advances our knowledge regarding what is done when doing CYC. Moreover, Tuning into CYC broadens existing frames of qualitative inquiry through explicating and demonstrating the theoretical and practical elements of audio drama inquiry. / Graduate

This study explores students' and their families' experiences during the pandemic response to COVID-19 by the higher education community. Using the hermeneutic phenomenological approach, we employed two open-ended surveys and semi-structured interviews of 16 parent-college student dyads (N = 34). The study draws on students' and parents' retrospective accounts beginning Spring 2020 through the Fall 2020 semesters. Families experienced a disruptive event initialized by the ebb and flow of information. Students' experiences varied based on their expectations and academic classification. The most consistent family challenges were the displacement of students and parents from their physical education and work locations while having to maintain student and occupation responsibilities. The educational experience was inconsistent and dependent on each professors' capacity to engage the students in the online environment. Students expressed feelings of loss of their student and educational experiences, but most students felt the spring courses prepared them to continue their education. Assignments due at random times and poor communication about expectations inhibit students from having dedicated time to interact and make memories. Most families adapted to the new normal by supporting the family members' identities as students and employees and ensuring everyone had the resource needed to succeed. Families experienced monotony and temporal disorientation. Families made meaningful memories through conversation, outdoor recreation, and other activities outside the daily routine. Family members provided feedback to one another to help the family maintain a stable system.

The purpose of this work is to center dance at the heart of Métis identity expressions, where reconnecting with who we are through dance is intimately grounded within an Indigenous understanding of restoring wellbeing. Exploring the experiences of four prominent Métis women allowed a space to celebrate the voice of dancers as they make sense of what it means to practice Métis dance within their lives. This research further focuses on the experiences of Métis dance as an understanding of Indigenous wellbeing. The lived experiences were collected and reviewed within an Indigenous research framework grounded in the Cree and Métis values of Mino-pimatisiwin (good life) and Wahkotowin (kinship) (Hart, 1999; Kelsey, 2008). Both concepts deeply inform the processes related to our reciprocal relationship to all things, living and non-living and further place emphasis on our shared responsibility to honour, respect and acknowledge Indigenous knowledge and its value to our communities. There were three findings that emerged from this study: Understanding Métis dance (1) as a restorative and relational praxis of self-knowing; 2) as intergenerational knowledge transfer; 3) as a site for growing cultural awareness and self esteem. The voices of the women celebrate Métis peoplehood through the restorative practice of dance and in doing so allow us to un-settle and re-center the notion of Métis identity and dispel the question of “authenticity” (Lawrence, 2003). These are our own personal stories to tell, and only we can rewrite them in a way that is beneficial and meaningful to us.

This thesis seeks to understand the role of school timetables as an interface between policies that regulate or distribute forms of capital to schools, and their teaching and learning rhythms. By doing so, it proposes a mechanism for examining the reproduction of schooling practices, and how these are grounded in policy-regulated materiality. Two high schools with similar historic backgrounds, and operating under the same provincial government, were selected and closely studied for evidence of rhythms of practice and the correspondence of these rhythms to each school's timetable. The two schools now experience different access to resources, and have significant differences in teaching and learning rhythms, as well as school-leaving summative assessment results. The study develops an analytic framework for identifying policies that reach into schools through the timetable. Five key inputs are identified as necessary for constructing timetables, providing productive lines of inquiry as to which policies affect schooling rhythms and how. By asking who teaches whom, what, with what and where, systematic analysis is conducted on: how schools are staffed (who); who they enrol (whom); their interpretation of curriculum (what); what supplementary resources they can command (with what); and their infrastructural facilities and geographic (dis)advantages (where). The interaction between these different threads is examined as they tangle within each school's timetable. The enactment of the policies regulating each thread is then traced through the layers of governance of the South African education system: national, provincial and local (school-level). Timetables are conceptualised in this study as local representations of intended teaching and learning rhythm. Using Lefebvre's triad of timespace-conceived, timespace-perceived and timespace-lived, timetables (timespace-conceived) are brought into conversation with timespace-lived through daily teaching and learning activities. Bourdieu's theory of practice is used with Lefebvre to animate the ‘game' of schooling: what schools strive for, what forms of capital they can command to sustain or improve their field position, and how they reproduce their practices. Bourdieu and Lefebvre together generate a sociomaterial practice theory lens that foregrounds timetables and their legitimacy to govern rhythms of teaching and learning in timespace. Timetables emerge as a site of the production and reproduction of advantage (fortified schools) and/or disadvantage (exposed schools) in the game of schooling. In timetables, the policies that avail forms of capital interact in previously unconsidered ways, suggesting that collectively they potentially undergird inequality in the education system.

Background: Forensic psychiatry is characterised by compulsory care and long hospital stays, where nurses care for patients with severe mental illness, who often have committed crimes. The main objective is to rehabilitate the patient to once again become a part of society by improving mental health and decreasing the risk of criminal relapse. This is mainly achieved through encounters with the patients. Encountering patients in forensic psychiatry means coming face to face with suffering and the duality of caring, doing what is best for the patient and protecting society. Aim: The purpose of the study was to obtain a deeper understanding of encounters with patients with mental illness in forensic inpatient care as experienced by nurses. Method: This licentiate thesis consists of two studies (I, II), both conducted with a qualitative design. A total of 13 nurses working at a forensic psychiatric hospital in Sweden were recruited through a purposive sample to participate in the studies through narrative interviews. Study I was analysed with phenomenological hermeneutics in line with Lindseth and Norbergh (2004) in order to illuminate the lived experience of nurses’ encounters. Study II was a secondary supplementary analysis, which applied hermeneutics in line with Fleming, Gaidys, and Robb (2003) to gain a deeper understanding of nurses’ compassion in forensic psychiatry. The two studies were merged to provide a comprehensive understanding in this licentiate thesis. Findings: Study I illuminated the meaning of nurses’ lived experiences of encounters with patients with mental illnesses in forensic inpatient care, that is the nurses’ desire to do good despite being confronted with their own emotions as fear, humiliation, and disappointment. Encounters were also occasionally perceived as positive, awakening emotions of compassion, competence, pride, trust, satisfaction, and gratification regarding the patient’s recovery. However, a source of conflict was the struggle between doing what was best for the patient and protecting society. The study comprised of four themes: being frustrated, protecting oneself, being open-minded, and striving for control. Study II aimed to gain a deeper understanding of nurses’ compassion in providing forensic psychiatric inpatient care with three themes: recognising suffering and need for support, responding to patient suffering, and reacting to one’s own vulnerability. Abstracting to a main theme of being compassionate in forensic psychiatry which is described as an emotional journey, an ongoing inner negotiation between own vulnerability and expressions of suffering. This inner negotiation of making sense of patients’ plea and how they were perceived was crucial for determining the development of compassion rather than turning to control and rules as a means to protect oneself. Discussion: A interpretation of the studies (I, II) revealed two topics, being sensitive and responsive and keeping distance, which were reflected upon against the theoretical framework of Kari Martinsen. The studies showed that nurses faced a variety of encounters that forced them to face their own vulnerability and that trust could reduce power imbalances as well as help deal with societal, man-made constructs. The nurses’ encounters with incomprehensible expressions of suffering also show that nurses need to find a way to make room for “expressions of life”– taking a step back and turning their gaze inwards – in order to regulate their own emotions. This may better equip nurses to encounter patients with compassion and kindness rather than turning to norms and rules to protect themselves and guard their own vulnerability. Rather than distancing themselves from the patients, nurses can instead take a step back to come closer to their patients.

The U.S. Southwest Border is associated with highly politicized topics, yet the lived experience of Border Patrol agents is not one of them. Border Patrol agents face risks to their personal safety and security as they attempt to safeguard the national security of the United States while implementing the policies of their organization, which are sometimes at odds with the beliefs and expectations of agents in the field. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore perceptions and lived experiences related to the threats and dangers that Border Patrol agents face as they protect the U.S. Southwest Border. The theoretical framework for this study involved McGregor's organizational behavior theory, Janis's groupthink theory, and the bureaucratic dissonance phenomenon. Data collected through semistructured interviews of 11 former Border Patrol agents with direct experience working along the U.S. Southwest Border were inductively coded and subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. On-duty risks, emotional toll, lack of community support, and separation from family are among the stressors for members of this profession. The key findings regarding threats and dangers included: perceived manpower shortage, fear of assaults, the very nature of the job, political and presidential administration conflicts, and lack of mobility (location and career advancements). The recommendations call for greater policy-and decision-maker understanding of the stresses and conflicts facing Border Patrol agents, which could effect positive social change by encouraging policies and regulations to improve job safety and security, and to inform training programs. The promulgation of the findings may contribute to improvements of the morale and safety of Border Patrol agents and enhance security of the United States.

With an increase in diagnosis rates of autism in Trinidad, more parents of children with autism, especially single fathers, face numerous challenges on a daily basis. There is a lack of research on this topic and therefore an inadequate understanding of the experiences of Trinidadian single fathers as primary caregivers for children with autism. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and depict the lived experiences of single fathers of children with autism. Social support theory was the guiding conceptual framework to explore and understand how single fathers effectively manage their daily challenges. Ten single fathers from Southern Trinidad were recruited through criterion sampling and they engaged in semi-structured interviews individually. Moustakas's steps to phenomenological analysis were used to analyze the data. There were seven major themes that emerged from describing the lived experience of single fathers of children with autism: (a) challenges, (b) social support systems, (c) day-to-day experiences, (d) the role of the father within the family, (e) effects on social life, (f) sibling reactions, and (g) adaptive coping mechanisms. This study may engender social change, as the findings may be used to support single fathers to continue to provide care for their children. This study could result in improved understanding and support for their children both at home, in school, and in the community. The findings will be available to other fathers who share similar experiences. Special education service providers may gain further information to improve their services to families of children with disabilities.

Currently, the high level of burnout among military psychologists resulting from contemporary military service is gaining attention. However, there is insufficient knowledge of their lived experiences of burnout. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore burnout, based on the military occupational mental health, military job demand-resources models, and biopsychosocial models. Eleven active duty and prior service military psychologists were recruited for interviews using snowball sampling. The first phase of data analysis employed NVivo software. The second and third phase used the 7-step modified version of the Van Kamm method, resulting in 7 themes and 1 discrepant case. The key findings indicated that the unique nature of military bureaucracy provided the environment that fostered burnout into a taboo milestone. Furthermore, the challenging task associated with finding meaning and balance for the ambiguous role of being a military psychologist also compounded the experiential factors contributing to burnout. Several shared experiential indications foretelling of burnout were identified. However, the reality of how military psychologist experienced burnout differed from textbook knowledge, indicating there is a theory-practice gap in personally diagnosing burnout progression. Military psychologists also indicated the theory-practice gap between the available resources for burnout and their limiting utilization practicability. The results of this study can be used to make a positive social change by better informing the development of prevention strategies benefiting not only military psychologists but potentially all military members who routinely describe themselves as burned out.

Bakgrund: Tre miljoner människor dör årligen som en konsekvens av deras alkoholkonsumtion. Alkoholberoende är en av de främsta globala orsakerna till förtida död. Alkoholkonsumtion kan härledas till ungefär 200 olika skador och sjukdomar och innebär sociala konsekvenser. Syfte: Syftet med litteraturstudien var att beskriva vuxna personers erfarenheter av att leva med ett alkoholberoende. Metod: En kvalitativ litteraturstudie utfördes för att besvara studiens syfte. Databaserna CINAHL och PsycInfo användes för att hitta de åtta kvalitativa artiklarna som inkluderades i litteraturstudien. Materialet granskades enligt Fribergs femstegsmodell. Resultat: Resultatet ledde fram till det övergripande temat Olika former av lidande med fem underliggande huvudkategorier: Bakomliggande orsaker till alkoholberoende, Fast i alkoholkonsumtionens makt, Konsekvenser av alkoholkonsumtionen, Vändpunkter i alkoholberoendet och Utmaningar med att leva ett nyktert liv. Konklusion: Alkoholberoende personer upplever ett socialt, fysiskt och psykiskt lidande. Utmaningar i livet kvarstår även om personen blivit nykter. Alkoholberoende personer står inför en omfattande stigmatisering av samhället och hälso- och sjukvården. Sjuksköterskan behöver visa medmänsklighet i omvårdnaden och erhålla förbättrad kunskap och insikt i alkoholberoende personers erfarenheter för att kunna understödja deras hälsa och välmående. / Background: Every year, three million people die as a consequence of alcohol consumption and it ́s one of the main causes of global premature death. Consumption of alcohol is known to cause 200 different kinds of injuries and diseases and contributes to negative social consequences. Aim: The purpose of this literature study was to describe adults lived experiences of alcohol dependency. Methods: To answer the purpose a qualitative literature study was conducted. The study constituted of eight qualitative articles found in databases CINAHL and PsycInfo. The research data was analyzed using Fribergs five-step model. Results: The analyze revealed one theme, Various forms of suffering and that it consisted of five main categories: Underlying causes, The grip of alcohol, Consequences, Turning points and Challenges of living sober. Conclusion: Adults with an alcohol dependency experience suffering of social, physical and psychic nature. They experience challenges even if they are living in sobriety and a widespread stigma from society and the health care system. Nurses need to display compassion and improve their knowledge and understanding of lived experiences to better support health and well-being.